Laws Failing To Keep Guns Out Of Hands Of Disturbed

Clem Henderson, who killed four people on Chicago`s West Side last week, had a history of bizarre behavior that included assaulting several people and spewing obscenities at a judge in open court.

But he had just as much right to buy guns in Illinois as the equally disturbed Laurie Dann, who killed one child and wounded five others and an adult during her own rampage in Winnetka last May.

Henderson and Dann were both killed-he by a policeman`s bullet, she by her own-but Illinois politicians continue to express frustration at their inability to find a politically acceptable way to keep guns out of the hands of people like them.

``They both could have bought as many guns and as much ammunition as they wanted under Illinois law,`` said Robert Fletcher, a spokesman for the Illinois State Police in Springfield.

That`s because they, along with almost 1 million other Illinoisans, had valid firearms owner`s identification cards, and that`s all an applicant has to show at a gun shop to be allowed to purchase firearms.

The cards cost $5 and are easy to obtain. On the form, applicants merely have to check ``yes`` or ``no`` beside boxes asking whether they have been convicted of a felony, have been a patient in a mental institution in the last five years, are addicted to narcotics or are mentally retarded.

Though it cannot be determined whether either Henderson or Dann was a narcotics addict, they apparently told the truth when they answered ``yes`` to the other three questions. Henderson had several convictions for battery and disorderly conduct, but they were misdemeanors, not felonies. Dann was never prosecuted for allegedly stabbing her former husband.

And though both were obviously disturbed, there`s no evidence that either had been institutionalized in the five years before applying for the gun permits.

The ``mental institution`` question is almost irrelevant these days, because so few people are institutionalized. The number of people in state mental hospitals has dropped from almost 20,000 in 1965 to 3,500 today.

It is not known whether Henderson used his Illinois firearms card to purchase his weapon, because the gun`s serial number had been filed off. And he undoubtedly violated the city ordinance that requires all handguns to be registered with the local police.

Chicago police have not accepted new gun registrations since 1982, which means it`s illegal to keep a handgun in the city if it was acquired since then. Handguns are not sold in Chicago, but Chicago residents are still allowed to obtain state firearm owner`s identification cards that enable them to buy guns outside the city.

In the wake of Henderson`s rampage, Chicago Police Supt. LeRoy Martin expressed the frustration of local policymakers when he said guns should be kept away from ``irresponsible people,`` adding that the oft-convicted Henderson ``made a mockery`` of the state firearms law.

But the Illinois General Assembly has consistently refused to approve even minor changes in the firearms law. A few days after the Dann shootings, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D., Chicago) was shouted down when she tried to get the House to consider amendments that she concedes ``would still not have kept guns out of the hands of Laurie Dann or Clem Henderson.

``But they might have kept guns away from some people who ought not to have them,`` she said.

The amendments would have raised the cost of applying for a card, increased the amount of background checking by the state police and required people to fill out the application form at the police station.

Under the existing process, she said, ``You can send in your false name with $5 and get your card because there`s not sufficient background checking.``

But Currie said she wasn`t sure the law could be rewritten to prevent persons with misdemeanor convictions from obtaining gun cards. Such a law might screen out persons who, for example, were convicted of misdemeanors for protesting at a civil rights demonstration, she said.

The law might work, she said, if it screened out applicants who had misdemeanor convictions for ``anything involving bodily harm . . . or problems that suggest a tendency toward violence.``

Another gun control advocate, State Sen. William Marovitz (D., Chicago), said he thought it was ``reasonable`` to deny gun cards to people with long histories of misdemeanor convictions or convictions for violent misdemeanors. ``I think it should be more than felony convictions,`` he said. ``Lots of times people are charged with felonies and plea bargain down to misdemeanors.``

Marovitz, who held hearings on gun control following the Dann shootings, said he expects to introduce legislation similar to Currie`s. He said his bills may require applicants to present three forms of identification and their fingerprints when applying for a card.

But many officials-including Currie, Mayor Eugene Sawyer and State`s Atty. Richard M. Daley-believe the only way to solve the handgun problem is to ban them nationwide.